Dominique Swain

From the 2500 would-be teen-temptresses that auditioned for the role, 15-year-old Malibu High School sophomore Dominique Swain was cast by director Adrian Lyne as his "Lolita" (1997). The film met wit...
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Mirror Mirror Review

By:
Matt Patches
Mar 30, 2012

Theatrics slapstick and cheer are cinematic qualities you rarely find outside the realm of animation. Disney perfected it with their pantheon of cartoon classics mixing music humor spectacle and light-hearted drama that swept up children while still capturing the imaginations and hearts of their parents. But these days even reinterpretations of fairy tales get the gritty make-over leaving little room for silliness and unfiltered glee. Emerging through that dark cloud is Mirror Mirror a film that achieves every bit of imagination crafted by its two-dimensional predecessors and then some. Under the eye of master visualist Tarsem Singh (The Fall Immortals) Mirror Mirror's heightened realism imbues it with the power to pull off anything — and the movie never skimps on the anything.
Like its animated counterparts Mirror Mirror stays faithful to its source material but twists it just enough to feel unique. When Snow White (Lily Collins) was a little girl her father the King ventured into a nearby dark forest to do battle with an evil creature and was never seen or heard from again. The kingdom was inherited by The Queen (Julia Roberts) Snow's evil stepmother and the fair-skinned beauty lived locked up in the castle until her 18th birthday. Grown up and tired of her wicked parental substitute White sneaks out of the castle to the village for the first time. There she witnesses the economic horrors The Queen has imposed upon the people of her land all to fuel her expensive beautification. Along the way Snow also meets Prince Alcott (Armie Hammer) who is suffering from his own money troubles — mainly being robbed by a band of stilt-wearing dwarves. When the Queen catches wind of the secret excursion she casts Snow out of the castle to be murdered by her assistant Brighton (Nathan Lane).
Fairy tales take flack for rejecting the idea of women being capable but even with its flighty presentation and dedication to the old school Disney method Mirror Mirror empowers its Snow White in a genuine way thanks to Collins' snappy charming performance. After being set free by Brighton Snow crosses paths with the thieving dwarves and quickly takes a role on their pilfering team (which she helps turn in to a Robin Hooding business). Tarsem wisely mines a spectrum of personalities out of the seven dwarves instead of simply playing them for one note comedy. Sure there's plenty of slapstick and pun humor (purposefully and wonderfully corny) but each member of the septet stands out as a warm compassionate companion to Snow even in the fantasy world.
Mirror Mirror is richly designed and executed in true Tarsem-fashion with breathtaking costumes (everything from ball gowns to the dwarf expando-stilts to ridiculous pirate ship hats with working canons) whimsical sets and a pitch-perfect score by Disney-mainstay Alan Menken. The world is a storybook and even its monsters look like illustrations rather than photo-real creations. But what makes it all click is the actors. Collins holds her own against the legendary Julia Roberts who relishes in the fun she's having playing someone despicable. She delivers every word with playful bite and her rapport with Lane is off-the-wall fun. Armie Hammer riffs on his own Prince Charming physique as Alcott. The only real misgiving of the film is the undercooked relationship between him and Snow. We know they'll get together but the journey's half the fun and Mirror Mirror serves that portion undercooked.
Children will swoon for Mirror Mirror but there's plenty here for adults — dialogue peppered with sharp wisecracks and a visual style ripped from an elegant tapestry. The movie wears its heart on its sleeve and rarely do we get a picture where both the heart and the sleeve feel truly magical.
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In This Means War – a stylish action/rom-com hybrid from director McG – Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises) and Chris Pine (Star Trek) star as CIA operatives whose close friendship is strained by the fires of romantic rivalry. Best pals FDR (Pine) and Tuck (Hardy) are equally accomplished at the spy game but their fortunes diverge dramatically in the dating realm: FDR (so nicknamed for his obvious resemblance to our 32nd president) is a smooth-talking player with an endless string of conquests while Tuck is a straight-laced introvert whose love life has stalled since his divorce. Enter Lauren (Reese Witherspoon) a pretty plucky consumer-products evaluator who piques both their interests in separate unrelated encounters. Tuck meets her via an online-dating site FDR at a video-rental store. (That Lauren is tech-savvy enough to date online but still rents movies in video stores is either a testament to her fascinating mix of contradictions or more likely an example of lazy screenwriting.)
When Tuck and FDR realize they’re pursuing the same girl it sparks their respective competitive natures and they decide to make a friendly game of it. But what begins as a good-natured rivalry swiftly devolves into romantic bloodsport with both men using the vast array of espionage tools at their disposal – from digital surveillance to poison darts – to gain an edge in the battle for Lauren’s affections. If her constitutional rights happen to be violated repeatedly in the process then so be it.
Lauren for her part remains oblivious to the clandestine machinations of her dueling suitors and happily basks in the sudden attention from two gorgeous men. Herein we find the Reese Witherspoon Dilemma: While certainly desirable Lauren is far from the irresistible Helen of Troy type that would inspire the likes of Tuck and FDR to risk their friendship their careers and potential incarceration for. At several points in This Means War I found myself wondering if there were no other peppy blondes in Los Angeles (where the film is primarily set) for these men to pursue. Then again this is a film that wishes us to believe that Tom Hardy would have trouble finding a date so perhaps plausibility is not its strong point.
When Lauren needs advice she looks to her boozy foul-mouthed best friend Trish (Chelsea Handler). Essentially an extension of Handler’s talk-show persona – an acquired taste if there ever was one – Trish’s dialogue consists almost exclusively of filthy one-liners delivered in rapid-fire succession. Handler does have some choice lines – indeed they’re practically the centerpiece of This Means War’s ad campaign – but the film derives the bulk of its humor from the outrageous lengths Tuck and FDR go to sabotage each others’ efforts a raucous game of spy-versus-spy that carries the film long after Handler’s shtick has grown stale.
Business occasionally intrudes upon matters in the guise of Heinrich (Til Schweiger) a Teutonic arms dealer bent on revenge for the death of his brother. The subplot is largely an afterthought existing primarily as a means to provide third-act fireworks – and to allow McGenius an outlet for his ADD-inspired aesthetic proclivities. The film’s action scenes are edited in such a manic quick-cut fashion that they become almost laughably incoherent. In fairness to McG he does stage a rather marvelous sequence in the middle of the film in which Tuck and FDR surreptitiously skulk about Lauren's apartment unaware of each other's presence carefully avoiding detection by Lauren who grooves absentmindedly to Montel Jordan's "This Is How We Do It." The whole scene unfolds in one continuous take – or is at least craftily constructed to appear as such – captured by one very agile steadicam operator.
Whatever his flaws as a director McG is at least smart enough to know how much a witty script and appealing leads can compensate for a film’s structural and logical deficiencies. He proved as much with Charlie’s Angels a film that enjoys a permanent spot on many a critic’s Guilty Pleasures list and does so again with This Means War. The film coasts on the chemistry of its three co-stars and only runs into trouble when the time comes to resolve its romantic competition which by the end has driven its male protagonists to engage in all manner of underhanded and duplicitous activities. This Means War being a commercial film – and likely an expensive one at that – Witherspoon's heroine is mandated to make a choice and McG all but sidesteps the whole thorny matter of Tuck and FDR’s unwavering dishonesty not to mention their craven disregard for her privacy. (They regularly eavesdrop on her activities.) For all their obvious charms the truth is that neither deserves Lauren – or anything other than a lengthy jail sentence for that matter.
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Top Story
Hip-hop guru Russell Simmons said Tuesday he will announce plans this weekend for a boycott against Pepsi, accusing the soft drink giant of applying a double standard, Reuters reports. A few months ago, Pepsi yanked a commercial featuring rapper Ludacris after conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly urged a boycott and accused Pepsi of being "immoral" for using the foul-mouthed rapper to promote their product. Pepsi caved in to the pressure and pulled the 30-second television spot, but recruited potty mouth Ozzy Osbourne for a Super Bowl commercial only months later. A spokeswoman for Simmons said in a statement, "The boycott is being called in response to Pepsi dropping Ludacris as spokesman and subsequently picking up the Osbournes, who are no less vulgar." Meanwhile, a PepsiCo Inc. spokesman told Reuters the Ludacris controversy was an unfortunate experience. "It was our mistake, we learned a lot from it and we've moved on," the spokesman said. "We respect Russell's interest in bringing hip-hop talent to a larger audience and we have worked together to do just that," he added.
Celebs
Madonna said she has not dyed her hair or started sporting baggy clothes because she is pregnant--and she is striking back at British gossip magazine Heat for saying so. Spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg said Madonna would file a complaint with Britain's Press Complaints Commission, a self-regulatory body set up and run by newspaper and magazines, over inaccurate reports that she is pregnant with her third child. "It's not true ... it's not accurate. She dyed her hair brown instead of blond, that does not confirm somebody's pregnant. And she's been wearing baggy clothes for 20 years, so what else is new?" Rosenberg told Reuters.
Brit mag Hello!, meanwhile, told London's High Court Tuesday that Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones couldn't complain over the use of unauthorized photos of their lavish New York wedding because they actively sought publicity for the event. The stars are suing the mag for an estimated $800,000 in damages for loss of income, stress and damage to their careers because of the poor quality of the shots, taken by gate-crashing photographer Rupert Thorpe. Hello! published the pics three days before rival magazine OK! hit the stands with official shots secured in a $1.65 million deal with the stars, Reuters reports.
A man who helped steal Nicolas Cage's 1989 Porsche 911 was sentenced to five years in prison Monday in Jefferson County Circuit Court, The Associated Press reports. Michael Gramling, 20, of Arnold, Mo., pleaded guilty last year after Missouri Water Patrol divers found the $100,000 car submerged in 12 feet of water at Lake of the Ozarks. It had been stolen a month earlier from a parking lot in Arnold while in a transport trailer on its way from California to Pennsylvania. Another defendant, Scott Air Force Base airman Robert Clerkin, 21, was previously tried on stealing charges in a military court and sentenced to six months in prison. His sentence includes a rank reduction, forfeiture in pay and a letter of reprimand.
Movies
Tickets are on sale now for the Santa Monica Film Festival, which runs Feb. 13-16 at the Laemmle Theater in Santa Monica, Calif., and features more than 40 independent and short films including Briar Patch (a dark love story starring Dominique Swain and Henry Thomas), Stevie (a documentary by Hoop Dreams director Steve James) and Lost Junction starring Neve Campbell. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are slated to receive the festival's Maverick Filmmakers award at the Feb. 13 opening night ceremony. Tickets and more information are available at www.smff.com.
Miramax offshoot Dimension Films is on board to co-finance the Warner Bros. action comedy Starsky and Hutch, which is based on the classic 1970s cop series. Originally the film was going to be an updated pic set in modern-day Los Angeles but has since been turned into a period piece. Co-financing was needed to cover the rising cost of costuming and set design expenses. Insiders tell Variety the budget for the pic is already north of $60 million. Directed by Todd Phillips, the film stars Ben Stiller as Det. David Starsky, Owen Wilson as Det. Kenneth Hutchinson and Snoop Dogg as their streetwise informant, Huggy Bear.
Director Mathieu Kassovitz, best known for his 1996 drama Hate, will helm the supernatural thriller Gothika starring Halle Berry and Penelope Cruz, Variety reports. The film revolves around a criminal psychologist (Berry) who awakens to find herself a patient in her own mental institution, unable to remember a murder she supposedly committed, and victimized by a vengeful spirit in the asylum. Cruz plays a fellow inmate. The film begins production in April and is scheduled for release at Halloween.
Music
AP reports the first new Doors concert will take place on Friday in Los Angeles with a tour planned for later this year, despite a looming lawsuit. Original Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger re-formed the group and renamed it The Doors 21st Century, with Ian Astbury of The Cult on vocals and former Police drummer Stewart Copeland. But former Doors drummer John Densmore has now filed a suit seeking a court order prohibiting the band from calling themselves The Doors when they perform without him, and requests that Densmore be paid a share of profits from any shows that have already taken place without him.

Chirpy blonde Carolyn McDuffy (Christina Ricci) has the perfect life. A Southern California State University senior from a wealthy family Carolyn's a devoted sister of Alpha Omega Pi and has the school's gorgeous top-ranked tennis star for a boyfriend. School's just started and her sorority's goal is to defeat archrivals the Tri-Omegas as Sorority of the Year. To that end Carolyn and her sisters hope to win over the Greek Council by showing their diversity and put on their best politically correct faces welcoming "the best" minority rushees and helping a charity for mentally handicapped male athletes. But Carolyn more than balks when it comes time to coach the athletes for the Challenged Games--she's scared stiff by her wheelchair-bound redheaded charge Pumpkin Romanoff (Hank Harris) whose puzzled stare crippled body and fumbling throws of the discus send her almost into a panic. It isn't long though before she gets to know the gentle and simplistically honest Pumpkin whose kind nature touches her heart and opens her eyes to a beauty that comes from inside. Before long she's introducing Pumpkin to her friends taking him on trips to the beach even setting him up on a date with her overweight highly insulted friend. When she realizes that what she feels for him to her own shock and the horror of everyone she knows is more love than friendship all hell breaks loose. Boyfriend Kent is devastated she's excommunicated from her sorority Pumpkin's overprotective mother wants to see her dead and she escapes...to Long Beach.
Ricci is so good in darkly comedic performances that it's no wonder she went from merely producing this movie to taking the starring role. She's right on with her tongue-in-cheek portrayal of a bubble-headed sorority chick who sees life through rose-colored glasses until her life falls to pieces and she delivers some great lines to boot. The problem with this movie isn't her acting it's the unevenness of the script that has her--and everyone else--doing things that don't quite ring true (like how could she drive off and forget Pumpkin was sitting helpless on the beach leaving him for hours?) but Ricci's able to compensate for that somewhat. Unfortunately the nature of Harris' character keeps him from saying much and other than by some great facial expressions we really don't get a good sense of who he is or what captivates Carolyn so. Carolyn's fellow sorority sisters (Dominique Swain Marisa Coughlan) are a hoot and Sam Ball as Kent is quite a find. Brenda Blethyn also appears as Pumpkin's overprotective mom.
This movie doesn't quite know what it wants to be. Black comedy with a message? Probably but it's so uneven you don't quite know what the message is. It seems like first-time directors Adam Larson Broder and Tony Abrams (who also co-wrote) were trying to give their film too many layers when it would've been best to stick to stereotypes while still being funny. Carolyn's sorority is already diverse--that they thought it would be impressive to get more minority rushees doesn't make as much sense as it would have had they all been blonde like their competition. The handicapped athletes don't look handicapped but rather like actors pretending to be handicapped. Film starts out mildly funny until midway through when there's a roughly 35-minute chunk of completely unfunny material and then a bizarre tone shift takes place that makes it seem almost as though the writers changed their minds about who these people are halfway throught the script. Pumpkin's mom who seemed fine for the first half is suddenly a heavy drinker who wants Pumpkin all to herself. (If she's so controlling why isn't she concerned that Carolyn is not only hours late bringing him home from the beach but then just leaves him sitting in the driveway without making sure he gets inside?) Kent who starts out more compassionate and understanding than Carolyn abruptly turns into a jerk who gets taught an incongrously horrible lesson that seems undeserved given his nice-guy ways throughout most of the film. And there's the matter of why they have Christina Ricci looking like a refugee from the sorority in Animal House while everyone else in the movie looks up to date. Overall it's just a weird flick.

Changing Lanes swerved into first place, opening to a fast $17.6 million.
Panic Room locked up second place with $11.3 million. The Sweetest Thing kicked off third with a tasty $10 million.
Ice Age was barely thawing in fourth place with $8.7 million. The Rookie was a hard running fifth with $8.1 million. Frailty, the weekend's other wide opening, tied for eighth with a frail $4.2 million.
With little excitement in the marketplace, key films--those grossing $500,000 or more--tumbled from their recent summer-like levels. This weekend's $92 million total was down about 13 percent from the previous weekend's $105.5 million. Business was up nearly 8 percent from last year's $85.3 million for what was Easter Weekend 2001.
THE TOP TEN
Paramount's R rated road rage drama Changing Lanes found first place parking, pushing the April box office speed limit with an ESTIMATED $17.55 million at 2,613 theaters ($6,716 per theater).
Changing Lanes' average per theater was the highest for any film playing in wide release this weekend.
Directed by Roger Michell, it stars Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson.
"We're very happy," Paramount distribution president Wayne Lewellen said Sunday morning. "It's on the high end of what we thought it would be. We were looking at $15-18 million."
Lewellen pointed out that Changing Lanes' opening is one of the best ever for an April arrival. "In the month of April, the largest opening ever was Life, which opened in '99 (the weekend of Apr. 16-18) to $20.4 million," he said. "Then you had Lost In Space at $20.1 million, Entrapment at $20.1 million, U-571 at $19.6 million, Indecent Proposal at $18.3 million and then this one at $17.6 million. So April is not a booming month (for openings)."
Looking at Changing Lanes' opening, Lewellen noted, "It's actually performed the way the research said (it would). It played across pretty much all demos equally. That is, it showed relatively the same interest and first choice across the board--a little stronger in older female (over 25). And that's pretty what we got. It had a very strong African-American attendance."
Columbia's R rated thriller Panic Room was still putting up strong resistance in its third week, down one peg to second place with an ESTIMATED $11.3 million (-38%) at 3,119 theaters (+66 theaters; $3,623 per theater). Its cume is approximately $74.1 million, heading for $100 million in domestic theaters.
Directed by David Fincher, it stars Jodie Foster.
"A less than 40 percent drop two weeks in a row for this wide a run and at this nice high level is certainly a sign of continued strength that we hope will get us to $100 million," Sony Pictures Entertainment worldwide marketing &amp; distribution president Jeff Blake said Sunday morning.
Sony also launched its first international openings for Panic Room this weekend to impressive results. "It was sensational," Blake noted. "We were number one in eight out of eight openings."
Panic Room took hold in Australia, Spain, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Holland and in Scandinavia (Sweden, Denmark and Finland).
"It opened this weekend to really tremendous results. We obviously beat all comers in all markets. The markets will continue to roll out with Japan opening this week and the U.K. opening the first week in May."
Focusing on the impact internationally of a strong domestic opening such as Panic Room had when it kicked off to $30.1 million in late March, Blake observed, "I happened to be traveling (abroad) for the last two weeks and every market I went to was aware of the great results out of the U.S. It certainly seeps into both the public consciousness and the exhibitor consciousness all over the world."
Columbia's R rated romantic comedy The Sweetest Thing opened in third place to a semi-sweet ESTIMATED $10.0 million at 2,670 theaters ($3,745 per theater).
Directed by Roger Kumble, it stars Cameron Diaz, Christina Applegate and Selma Blair.
"Young girls in their high teens and 20s were the strongest audience," Sony's Jeff Blake said. "The nice surprise was that young males liked it as well as the young females. We hope that as really one of the few comedies in the market we can hang in there."
20th Century Fox's PG rated animated feature Ice Age slipped one peg to fourth place in its fifth week, still frozen solid with an ESTIMATED $8.7 million (-36%) at 3,011 theaters (-189 theaters; $2,889 per theater). Its cume is approximately $151.8 million, heading for $175 million or more in domestic theaters.
Directed by Chris Wedge, it features the voices of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo and Denis Leary.
"It's holding wonderfully," Fox distribution president Bruce Snyder said Sunday morning, "especially (considering that) The Rookie is still in the market doing business to families and so is Clockstoppers."
Buena Vista/Disney's G rated family appeal baseball drama The Rookie fell one base to fifth place in its third week, still showing great legs with an ESTIMATED $8.1 million (-30%) at 2,520 theaters (-4 theaters; $3,234 per theater). Its cume is approximately $45.4 million.
Directed by John Lee Hancock, it stars Dennis Quaid.
20th Century Fox and Regency Enterprises' PG-13 rated thriller High Crimes fell four rungs to sixth place in its second week with a slower ESTIMATED $8.01 million (-43%) at 2,747 theaters (+30 theaters; $2,914 per theater). Its cume is approximately $25.5 million, heading for $40 million or more.
Directed by Carl Franklin, it stars Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman.
Paramount and Nickelodeon Movies' PG rated time travel adventure Clockstoppers held on to seventh place in its third week with an okay ESTIMATED $4.77 million (-35%) at 2,512 theaters (-51 theaters; $1,897 per theater). Its cume is approximately $28.2 million, heading for $40 million-plus in domestic theaters.
Directed by Jonathan Frakes, it stars Jesse Bradford, Paula Garces, French Stewart, Michael Biehn and Robin Thomas.
"We're still $12 million or so away from the (projected) $40 million, but these kind of films have sort of an extended life in matinee business," Paramount's Wayne Lewellen said Sunday morning. "We find that to be true with all of the family (product). They hang on."
Artisan Entertainment's R rated youth comedy National Lampoon's Van Wilder, which was sixth last week, tied for eighth place in its second week with a less funny ESTIMATED $4.2 million (-43%) at 2,104 theaters (+82 theaters; $1,996 per theater). Its cume is approximately $13.8 million, heading for $20 million in domestic theaters.
Directed by Walt Becker, it stars Ryan Reynolds and Tara Reid.
"We're figuring it's going to top out at $20 million, which for us will be successful because we made the film for between $5-6 million," Artisan domestic theatrical distribution president Steve Rothenberg said Sunday morning.
"These R rated comedies always do extraordinarily well in video. Kids who are 13, 14 or 15 go to a movie theater and cannot get into (R rated films if) they're not accompanied (by an adult). Yet they can go to the local (video store) three months later when it's out and rent it with no questions asked. These films typically over perform versus box office when they go to video. So we're very optimistic about it doing very, very well on the video side."
Lions Gate Films' R rated horror genre film Frailty kicked off quietly in a tie for eighth place with an ESTIMATED $4.2 million at 1,497 theaters ($2,806 per theater).
Directed by Bill Paxton, it stars Paxton and Matthew McConaughey.
Rounding out the Top Ten was New Line Cinema's R rated vampire thriller Blade 2, which was fifth a week earlier, in its fourth week with a dull ESTIMATED $4.1 million (-45%) at 2,174 theaters (-387 theaters; $1,886 per theater). Its cume is approximately $73.7 million, heading for $80 million in domestic theaters.
Directed by Guillermo Del Toro, it stars Wesley Snipes.
OTHER OPENINGS
This weekend also saw the arrival of Fine Line Features' R rated comedy Human Nature with an unexciting ESTIMATED $0.31 million at 224 theaters ($1,385 per theater).
Directed by Michael Gondry, it stars Tim Robbins, Patricia Arquette, Rhys Ifans and Miranda Otto.
Lions Gate Films PG-13 rated comedy thriller The Cat's Meow opened to an encouraging ESTIMATED $0.11 million at 11 theaters in New York and Los Angeles ($10,000 per theater).
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich, it stars Kirsten Dunst, Eddie Izzard, Edward Herrmann, Cary Elwes, Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Tilly.
"We'll be expanding Cat's into the Top Ten markets on Apr. 26 and then nationwide on May 3, so we're very optimistic about that," Lions Gate Films president Tom Ortenberg said Sunday.
TriStar's R rated drama New Best Friend arrived to an unfriendly ESTIMATED $27,000 at 100 theaters ($270 per theater).
Directed by Zoe Clarke-Williams, it stars Mia Kirshner, Meredith Monroe, Dominique Swain and Taye Diggs.
SNEAK PREVIEWS
There were no national sneak previews this weekend.
EXPANSIONS
On the expansion front this weekend IFC Films' unrated erotic drama Y Tu Mama Tambien went wider in its fifth week with a less arousing ESTIMATED $1.0 million (-14%) at 194 theaters (+14 theaters; $5,225 per theater). Its cume is approximately $4.5 million.
Directed by Alfonso Cuaron, it stars Maribel Verdu, Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna.
USA Films' R rated romantic comedy Monsoon Wedding added theaters in its eighth week with a still spicy ESTIMATED $0.64 million (-10%) at 162 theaters (+12 theaters; $3,945 per theater). Its cume is approximately $6.2 million.
Directed by Mira Nair, it was produced by Nair and Caroline Baron.
United Artists' reissue of The Last Waltz went wider in its second week via MGM with an ESTIMATED $34,000 at 6 theaters (+5 theaters; $5,725 per theater). Its cume is approximately $69,000.
Directed by Martin Scorsese, Waltz is a musical documentary about the final concert of The Band.
INTERNATIONAL
Universal's international division reported Sunday morning that in Argentina A Beautiful Mind was number one with $45,000 (-10%) on 50 playdates. E.T. moved up three pegs to sixth place with $17,000 (+13%) on 50 playdates.
Panic Room opened in first place in Australia with $1.1 million on 200 playdates. Time Machine opened number two with $0.65 million on 183 playdates. A Beautiful Mind is fourth in its 6th week with $0.36 million on 230 playdates. The Scorpion King opens next Thursday.
In Brazil, A Beautiful Mind is third with $0.2 million (-20%) on 156 playdates. K-Pax, which Universal is releasing in Brazil, opened fourth with $60,000 on 55 playdates. E.T ranked tenth with $35,000 (-14%) on 159 playdates.
A Beautiful Mind was fourth in Germany with $0.63 million (-26%) on 355 playdates. Spy Game finished eleventh with $0.2 million (-49%) on 230 playdates. E.T was 14th with $0.14 million (-30%) on 538 playdates.
In Spain, E.T had a two day gross of $0.14 million (-35%) on 250 playdates. A Beautiful Mind was fifth with $0.26 million (-30%) on 190 playdates.
Ali G Inda House, Universal's latest film from Working Title, continued to perform solidly in the U.K. where it has grossed $12.8 million in 23 days on 394 playdates. Scorpion King opens Friday (Apr. 19) in the U.K.
WEEKEND COMPARISONS
Key films--those grossing more than $500,000--took in approximately $91.98 million, up about 7.84 percent from last year when they totaled $85.3 million. Key films this weekend were down about 12.78 percent from the previous weekend of this year's total of $105.46 million.
Last year, Dimension Films' third week of Spy Kids was first with $12.5 million at 3,172 theaters ($3,941 per theater); and Paramount's second week of Along Came A Spider was second with $11.53 million at 2,530 theaters ($4,556 per theater). The top two films one year ago grossed $24.0 million. This year, the top two films grossed an ESTIMATED $28.9 million.

At the exclusive Colby University a young woman lies in a coma from a drug overdose. As local sheriff Artie Bonner (Taye Diggs) investigates what happened he starts to unravel the lives of four young college coeds. Jumping back in time we meet Alicia (Mia Kirshner) who is attending Colby on financial aid and scholarships and is determined to get into law school at any cost. Hadley (Meredith Monroe) Julianne (Rachel True) and Sydney (Dominique Swain) are three of Colby's most popular girls--beautiful rich and all damaged in some way. When Alicia and Hadley are paired up for a sociology class senior thesis Hadley at first brushes away the plain Jane. But Alicia becomes persistent perhaps seeing a window of opportunity to get into law school and manages to get Hadley to accept her into the clique. The three girls introduce Alicia to a world of privilege boys--and of course drugs--and Alicia takes to this new life a little too vigorously. Soon they regret letting this supposedly meek girl into their lives especially Hadley. Somehow the trio has to stop this monster they have created.
You can't say the cast isn't at least esthetically pleasing to look at--but pretty people don't necessarily make a good film. It's a shame really because some of the actors actually have potential but have managed to suppress their good sense for this. Canadian Kirshner has made some excellent films in her native country including Atom Egoyan's 1994 Exotica but she hasn't made that jump in the United States choosing instead films such as Not Another Teen Movie. She does a fairly nice job in Friend but it's hard to shine in a bad film. She deserves better (and a new agent). True and Swain (who made an extremely convincing Lolita in Adrian Lyne's recent version of the Nabokov book) also do an adequate job with thankless parts. It's Monroe's performance that weighs the film down. The TV actress (Dawson's Creek) can't quite raise up to the level of a feature film and has very little range of emotions--and unfortunately the film centers on her. Not the best choice.
The fact that New Best Friend sat on the shelf for a few years gives you a pretty good indication of how the next few hours are going to go. It is simply a film that takes itself much too seriously. This scenario--a super-elite clique that makes over a sweet girl and eventually turns her into an uncontrollable monster who has to be stopped--has been done and done again. Yet in films like Heathers and Jawbreaker it's done with biting commentary a tongue-in-cheek look at how peers can sway behavior. In Friend we end up watching a very bad episode of Beverly Hills 90210. The lifestyle of the rich and famous in a small college town just isn't all that interesting. Relatively new director Zoe Clarke-Williams obviously needs a few more features under her belt before she can be considered as a serious director. Williams has the action moving back and forth through time so often that it's hard to follow the timeline of events. The film could have done so much more--but it just didn't.

The deadly road games between motorists Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson should propel Changing Lanes straight to the top of this weekend's box office.
The dark psychological drama, representing a change of pace for Notting Hill director Roger Michell, should fend off a serious challenge from Cameron Diaz's romantic comedy, The Sweetest Thing.
In Changing Lanes, a fender bender results in attorney Affleck losing an important court document and Jackson missing a golden opportunity to win back his estranged wife and kids. The two lock horns when Affleck resorts to desperate measures to retrieve the document from Jackson.
The spectacle of an indignant Jackson exchanging blows with a fraught Affleck should allow Changing Lanes to overcome a couple of a bad plot turns and a slew of traffic-halting speeches about the law. Accordingly, Changing Lanes should debut somewhere between the openings of Jackson's Rules of Engagement ($15 million) and Deep Blue Sea ($18.6 million).
Changing Lanes also kicks off what could be a banner year for Jackson, who will be seen this summer in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, XXX and Formula 51. Is Jackson trying to replace Gene Hackman as the hardest-working man in Hollywood?
Cameron Diaz showed a willingness to do anything and everything for a laugh--especially when it came to certain bodily fluids--in the unexpected comedy smash There's Something About Mary. She returns to similar bawdy comic territory with The Sweetest Thing, in which she plays a party girl who flounders at the prospect of wooing the man of her dreams (Thomas Jane).
The Sweetest Thing marks Diaz's first solo opportunity to capitalize on the recent success of her ensemble and supporting contributions to Shrek ($267.6 million), Charlie's Angels ($125.3 million), Vanilla Sky ($100.3 million) and Any Given Sunday ($75.5 million).
Sony must have great faith in Diaz, who pocketed a reported $15 million for The Sweetest Thing. The sight of a carefree Diaz dancing the night away helped turn Charlie's Angels into a hit, so The Sweetest Thing should have no problem earning back that $15 million in its opening weekend. That would best the $13.7 million debut of There's Something About Mary, but the Bobby and Peter Farrelly farce had such long legs that it made a total of $176.4 million. The Sweetest Thing should charm its way to $50 million.
After many years of toiling in one James Cameron blockbuster after another, actor Bill Paxton finally tries his hand at calling the shots.
Paxton's gothic horror tale Frailty features his U-571 comrade Matthew McConaughey as a man who assists the FBI in the search for a serial killer. Paxton, seen in flashbacks, plays McConaughey's character's murderous father.
Lions Gate didn't have much luck getting audiences to sample the grisly, but satirical, American Psycho ($15 million), which may explain why the distributor has played around with Frailty's release date. Also, Lions Gate is putting Frailty into a modest 1,800 theaters, which could result in a $5 million to $6 million debut. Its long-term prospects seem to hinge more on its excellent reviews than McConaughey's questionable box office stature.
Not much can be expected of New Best Friend, which sneaks into about 100 theaters this weekend after spending two years on the shelf. Once known as Mary Jane's Last Dance, this teen-oriented thriller will doubtless endure the same fate as last year's woeful Soul Survivors: a don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it theatrical run followed by a quick video release. Still, its cast--Taye Diggs, Dominique Swain, Mia Kirshner and Rachel True--might lure a few people to this tale of a deadly university clique.
Human Nature also debuts this weekend in limited release. The latest warped satire from Being John Malkovich screenwriter Charlie Kaufman features Tim Robbins as a behaviorist who abandons studying mice in favor of civilizing the feral Rhys Ifans.
Like Frailty, Human Nature must rely on critical support if it is to overcome its offbeat premise and become an art-house sensation a la Being John Malkovich ($22.8 million).
Two tough women struggled last weekend for box office supremacy, with both emerging victorious.
With $61.8 million through Wednesday, Panic Room is certain to be Jodie Foster's first $100 million hit since 1997's Contact ($100.9 million). The claustrophobic thriller--with Foster thwarting a home invasion--also surpassed the box office totals for Alien 3 ($54.9 million) and The Game ($48.2 million) to become director David Fincher's biggest hit bar Seven ($100.1 million). After dropping an acceptable 39 percent in its second weekend, from $30 million to $18.2 million, Panic Room should amass between $11 million and $12 million this weekend.
Ashley Judd's High Crimes managed an impressive $14 million opening without the benefit of much pre-release fanfare and has $16.7 million through Wednesday. That's better than the $13.2 million opening for Kiss the Girls, which first paired Judd with High Crimes co-star Morgan Freeman. However, lousy reviews for this nonsensical courtroom thriller should result in a 50 percent plunge this weekend. High Crimes doesn't have the smarts or endurance to surpass Kiss the Girls' $60.5 million total.
The laughter seemed to stop last weekend despite the arrival of two comedies.
National Lampoon's Van Wilder--the first theatrical release to bear the comic institution's moniker since 1995's disastrous Senior Trip--collected a puny $7.3 million in its first weekend. National Lampoon clearly made the wrong choice in attaching its name to what was once known as Van Wilder: Party Planner.
With only $8.8 million through Wednesday, National Lampoon's Van Wilder once again proves that no one cares about Tara Reid unless she's serving up American Pie.
Tim Allen and Rene Russo wanted Big Trouble, and they sure got it in the form of a less-than-explosive $3.5 million debut.
Get Shorty director Barry Sonnenfeld's latest crime caper opened last weekend after being postponed in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Seven months later, audiences still aren't ready to laugh at a plot that involves a stolen nuclear bomb and the possible military downing of a passenger airplane. Big Trouble has $4.1 million total through Wednesday, with $10 million a possible total.
Big Trouble's failure--expected or otherwise--comes as bad news for Allen and Russo. Allen's ignored Joe Somebody ($22.7 million) seems like a blockbuster in comparison. Russo now has three flops in a row following last month's Showtime ($36.3 million) and 2000's The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle ($26 million).
A plot to kill a beloved children's TV entertainer didn't need much help from Robin Williams. Death to Smoochy dropped out of the Top 10 after just one week. Director Danny DeVito's children's TV satire tumbled 62 percent in its second weekend, going from $4.2 million to $1.6 million. Its total through Sunday: $7.2 million.
Ice Age isn't cooling off, though. The CGI-animated adventure enjoyed a fourth weekend of $13.5 million, down a mere 25 percent from its third weekend haul of $18.1 million. With $142.4 million through Wednesday, Ice Age continues on its merry path to $180 million.
The Rookie threw a strong second inning, dropping 25 percent from its $16 million debut to $11.7 million. Baseball might not have recovered from the 1994 strike, but the game's sure reviving Dennis Quaid's career.
This stirring biography of Tampa Bay Devil Rays pitcher Jim Morris could become Quaid's biggest solo effort. With $36.6 million through Wednesday, The Rookie will outscore Frequency ($44.9 million) this weekend and may eventually exceed The Parent Trap's $66.3 million total. Quaid's biggest hits: the ensemble dramas Traffic ($124.1 million) and Any Given Sunday ($75.5 million).
Clockstoppers registered a strong second weekend, eroding by a mere 28 percent, from $10.1 million to $7.2 million. Jonathan Frakes' time-bending teen adventure has $23.1 million through Wednesday. Its final destination: $35 million.
Blade 2 will surpass its predecessor's $70.1 million total on Friday, but it continues to hemorrhage beyond control. Wesley Snipes' vampire saga lost 43 percent of its audience in its third weekend, dropping to $7.4 million from $16 million. With $69.2 million through Wednesday, Blade 2 will retreat into the darkness with about $80 million.
The end is near for Mel Gibson's We Were Soldiers ($72.2 million through Wednesday), Best Picture Oscar winner A Beautiful Mind ($165.5 million through Wednesday), The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring ($304.4 million through Tuesday), The Time Machine ($54.7 million through Sunday) and John Q ($70.1 million through Sunday).
Seems the 20th anniversary of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial isn't too much of a cause for celebration. Steven Spielberg's 1982 classic has phoned home $31 million through Tuesday. That's better than Grease's 1998 reissue ($28.3 million), but unimpressive compared with the 2000 return of The Exorcist ($39 million). Let's not even bring up the 1997 re-release of the Star Wars trilogy.
Still, with a total $430.8 million through Tuesday, Spielberg can take comfort knowing that E.T. will earn enough money this week to supplant Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace ($431 million) as the third high-grossing film domestically. At least, that is, until Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones storms theaters this summer.

Top Story
Liza Minnelli and her new husband, producer David Gest, are already planning to adopt four children, the Associated Press reports. The couple was quoted as saying in Britain's Daily Express that they wish to adopt children "of all different races." Minnelli, 56, met Gest last year when she appeared on his television special Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Special. "Liza is going to be the best mother in the world," Gest, 48, was quoted as saying.
In General
Billy Joel and Elton John were forced to postpone the rest of their U.S. concert dates after Joel suffered from an inflamed vocal cord and upper respiratory infection, the AP reports. The shows affected on the Face to Face tour include Monday night's performance at Madison Square Garden; the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., on March 20, 22, 28 and 30; and at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, N.J., on April 4, 8 and 11. The shows are expected to be rescheduled in the next day or so.
Britney Spears will be the co-owner of a new restaurant in New York tentatively called Pinky, the AP reports. The moderately priced American bistro, which will be run by restaurateur Bobby Ochs, is scheduled to open in May on East 41st Street. Pinky, for those not in the know, is Spears' nickname given to her by Justin Timberlake.
Charlotte Ross, who plays Detective Connie McDowell in the police drama NYPD Blue, is the latest star to bare it all for a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals campaign. According to PETA's Web site, Ross will pose naked holding a white bunny, with a slogan reading, "I'd rather show my buns than wear fur." Ross will be following in the footsteps of former PETA models Pamela Anderson, Sheryl Lee, Dominique Swain, Kim Basinger and Christy Turlington.
Harry Belafonte was presented with the Distinguished American Award at the John F. Kennedy Library Friday for his lifelong work as an advocate for human rights and racial equality, the AP reports. Belafonte, who starred in the 1954 film Carmen Jones and sold a million copies of his album Calypso, refused to perform in the South from 1954 through 1961 because of racial segregation.
Filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, whose film All About My Mother won an Oscar in 2000, is stirring up controversy with his latest film Talk to Her, which premiered in Spain this week. According to Reuters, the film is about a male nurse who falls in love with a comatose patient while striking up a friendship with the boyfriend of another comatose patient--an injured woman matador. Spanish animal-rights activists complained of cruelty during shooting of the film's bloody bullfighting sequences, but Almodovar contends he was filming an already scheduled bullfight.
Eddie Murphy is in talks with The Lion King director Rob Minkoff to star in Disney's Haunted Mansion. According to Variety, the film is based on a popular Disney attraction. Murphy is set to play a father who visits a haunted house and encounters a ghost that spooks him into a greater understanding of the importance of family.
Johnny Depp will star as Peter Pan author Sir James M. Barrie in Miramax Films' Neverland. The film, which begins shooting in June in London, will be directed by Monster's Ball director Marc Forster, Variety reports.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and The Royal Tenenbaums have won best movie costume awards from the Costume Designers Guild, Reuters reports. Because members of CDG are often also members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the awards are seen as a predictor of the Best Costume Design award for the Oscars.
Brass Eye, the controversial British satire on pedophilia, has been nominated for two British Academy Television Awards, including best innovation and best comedy program or series, Reuters reports. The show was widely criticized last July after it failed to sufficiently warn viewers about its content.
George Michael is speaking out about his 1998 arrest for lewd behavior. Michael said the incident, which occurred in a park outside the Beverly Hills Hotel, forced him to come out publicly as a gay man. "Suddenly," he said, "it was a way of making my life about me. And for six months, it worked." Michael's new single, "Freeek," was released Monday in the U.K.
Revlon is spending somewhere between $3 million and $7 million, a larger part of its daytime TV ad budget, to co-star on the ABC soap opera All My Children. According to Variety, Revlon will be featured as the archrival to Erica Kane's (Susan Lucci) Enchantment cosmetic company. Because ABC is the only network to own all of its soap operas, the product placement sell is an important source of revenue.
Beloved late comedian Lucille Ball, whose cremated remains are with that of her mother's at a cemetery in Los Angeles, could be going to Jamestown, N.Y., the AP reports. Her daughter, Lucie Arnaz, said she would like to see the remains of both women moved to a cemetery in Ball's hometown. Arnaz is currently scouting a location in Jamestown to expand the Luci-Desi Museum.

Teen pop idol Britney Spears is hotter than a fur coat in Miami after media reports surfaced that she would appear nude in an anti-fur poster campaign for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Spears' publicist Lisa Kasteler denied the media reports on Thursday and said that the singer was not planning to pose at all-even with her clothes on.
Kasteler said that Spears had offered to provide a photograph of herself for a PETA poster to be used at the New York nightclub Centro Fly in order to promote its new policy refusing entry to patrons wearing fur.
But the singer has apparently suspended all negotiations with PETA following the reports that she planned to pose naked, Reuters reports.
"Notwithstanding the meaningful work that PETA does, we cannot be involved with an organization that would distort the truth, " Kasteler said.
PETA campaign director Dan Matthews denied ever saying Spears would pose naked.
"We've never distorted anything, " he told Reuters. "We simply confirmed that we planned on doing a poster with her. We never said anything about nudity.
"If the downside is that the whole world knows Britney Spears is anti-fur, that's a good thing," he added.
Kasteler said the singer still feels strongly about animal rights and would find another organization to be involved with.
Other celebrities have posed naked for PETA's "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" poster campaign, including Pamela Anderson, Kim Basinger, Christy Turlington and Melissa Etheridge.
The latest was Dominique Swain, star of the 1997 remake of Lolita, photographed writing the slogan "I'd Rather Go Naked…" on a chalkboard. As with the others Swain's poster was shot from the side in a discreet manner.
Spears dropped the idea of using a caged tiger in her stage show the MTV Video Music Awards in New York in September after being criticized by PETA.

Dramatic and documentary film competition finalists for the 2002 Sundance Film Festival were announced Monday, with new and more seasoned artists making the list. Next year's festival in Park City, Utah, though, is marked by several changes.
Sundance organizers have decided to split its non-competitive American Spectrum into two categories to differentiate between lower budget films and higher profile films with better-known actors. While American Spectrum will still feature smaller films like Blue Car, a first feature by Karen Moncrief, the new American Showcase category will highlight films from veteran indie filmmakers, like Thirteen Conversations About One Thing starring Matthew McConaughey and John Turturro.
The upcoming festival was also bumped up a week to accommodate the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and will run from Jan. 10-20. Festival artistic director Geoffrey Gilmore told Variety that security matters, a major concern for the Olympics, are being addressed.
"We will definitely have added security in place. There will be bag checks, metal detectors and other measures. We're working very closely with Olympics security officials, the state and federal agencies, and I know we'll have enough security. On the other hand, we've tried not to overreact," Gilmore explained.
There is also a chance that the primary home of the documentary competition--the old Holiday Cinema triplex--will not be ready in time for the festival, which would require a change in venue.
What has remained unchanged at Sundance is the diversity.
The 16 films in the drama grouping include Bark, a dark comedy about a woman who believes she is a dog starring Lisa Kudrow and Hank Azaria; Peter Mattei's first feature The End of Love starring Steve Buscemi, Rosario Dawson, and Jill Hennessy; Pumpkin, an anti-P.C. satire with Christina Ricci, Brenda Blethyn and Dominique Swain; and the digitally shot Personal Velocity starring Kyra Sedgwick, Parker Posey and Fairuza Balk.
Documentaries featured include American Standoff, an examination of the crisis in the American labor movement as seen through the stories of three rank-and-file Teamsters; How to Draw a Bunny, a revelation of the life, career and death of Andy Warhol and Ray Johnson; and Sister Helen about a woman who became a Benedictine nun after the death of her husband and two sons, and opened a center for recovering alcoholics in the South Bronx.
Entries in the Premieres, World Cinema, Frontier, Midnight and other categories will be announced Tuesday, Variety reports.
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Title

Starred in the satirical comedy "The Intern" about the shallow world of fashion magazines

Co-starred with Summer Phoenix in "Girl"

Co-starred in the CBS TV-movie "The Madam's Family: The Truth About the Canal Street Brothel"

Co-starred in "Alpha Dog," an independent feature about a real-life drug dealer; Nick Cassavetes wrote and directed

Worked as a stunt double on "The Good Son"

Cast in title role of Adrian Lyne's "Lolita" (film released in Europe in 1997)

Played Jamie Archer, the daughter of John Travolta and Joan Allen, in John Woo's "Face/Off"

Summary

From the 2500 would-be teen-temptresses that auditioned for the role, 15-year-old Malibu High School sophomore Dominique Swain was cast by director Adrian Lyne as his "Lolita" (1997). The film met with numerous controversies and was released only in Europe (no American distributor would touch the film because of its subject matter). Initial reviews for the fledgling actress were mixed with some feeling she was more bratty and less sensual than Sue Lyon in Stanley Kubrick's 1962 version while others praised her for bringing a contemporary edge to the role of a pre-teen manipulator. Her prior professional experience amounted to stunt double work on "The Good Son" (1993), but since playing the nymphet, Swain acted a part closer to herself, a typical high school girl, the daughter of Joan Allen and John Travolta, in John Woo's "Face/Off" (1997). She also completed filming "Girl" (lensed in 1997), starring opposite Summer Phoenix as a young woman who leaves the suburbs behind to fall in with Portland's underground rock scene searching for sex and true love.

Name

Role

Comments

Charlie Bambrook

Companion

dating in 1998

Chelsea Swain

Sister

born c. 1984

Education

Name

Malibu High School

Notes

"I was really a failure at going through the motions of sex. My hips were moving, but I didn't know what I was doing. It didn't look realistic. They kept moving the camera back because I was just . . . terrible! But Adrian said it actually added to the scene, because Lolita wasn't supposed to be that experienced sexually."---Dominique Swain on her role in "Lolita" to MOVIELINE, June 1997.

At the age of 21, she became the youngest model to pose nude for PETA.

Affiliations

Swain is a spokesperson for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).